HDD Revenue To Drop 11.8% In ’13

New York — The laptop and desktop PC are not the only products being knocked down by the tablet.

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New York — The laptop and desktop PC are not the only products being knocked down by the tablet.

According to IHS iSuppli, hard-disk drive revenue is expected to decline 11.8 percent in 2013 to $32.7 billion. The research firm directly blamed tablet, smartphone and the growing popularity of solid-state drives for the HDD drop-off.

“The HDD industry will face myriad challenges in 2013,” said Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS, “Shipments for desktop PCs will slip this year, while notebook sales are under pressure as consumers continue to favor smartphones and tablets. The declining price of SSDs also will allow them to take away some share from conventional HDDs.”

IHS did not release how much revenue the SSD market will generate.

Ultrabooks and thin-form-factor laptops will also negatively impact the HDD business because these products’ thin profiles do not have enough space for an HDD.

Despite the pressure being placed on the HDD category, it will continue to dominate the storage market due to its lower average selling price and higher storage capacities, Zhang said. HDD average selling prices will fall about 7 percent this year, said IHS.

The other factor that will help extend the HDD is the hybrid drive. By combining SSD with an HDD, companies can deliver large, yet very fast, storage systems, said Zhang.